A moving company, also commonly known as a van line, is a business entity that provides services to people and businesses in connection with moving their goods from one location to another. In this marketplace, a variety of different types of moving companies exist. For example, one type of moving company is a “national moving company” (also commonly known as a “national van line”). A national moving company typically provides service across multiple states (or even nationwide across the U.S.), particularly in connection with interstate moves. It should be understood that a national moving company need not provide moving services in all U.S. states or even a majority of U.S. states. Another type of moving company is an “agent moving company”. An agent moving company typically has an authorized agent relationship with a national moving company. Within this relationship, the agency moving company will often provide moving services to customers as an agent of the national moving company for certain types of move transactions, typically interstate moves. However, it should be understood that an agent moving company may also provide moving services, often locally and intrastate, to customers outside the scope of its agency relationship with a national moving company.
An important aspect of business for moving companies is providing customers with quotes for move transactions. However, as indicated above in the general description of the moving industry landscape, the creation and management of quotes in the moving industry may involve various participants, including national moving companies and numerous agent moving companies.
National moving companies may have a “home office” from which moves are managed. It should be understood that the term “home office” does not refer to a single office location but rather to an administrative office role which me be realized by parties physically situated in one or more office locations. This home office may encompass a call center and/or Internet website for fielding sales leads from potential customers. The home office may further encompass administrative personnel for managing these leads as the leads mature in the quote process.
Depending on the nature of the sales lead, the home office of the national moving company may assign the sales lead or some aspect thereof to an agent moving company with which it has an agency relationship. However, for other sales leads, the national moving company may refer the lead exclusively to an agent moving company for services outside the agency relationship. Additionally, sales leads may originate at the office of an agent moving company irrespective of whether the lead is for service by the agent moving company or the national moving company with whom it has an agency relationship.
A single “move” typically comprises one origin and at least one destination, and the goods to be moved are generally initially located at the origin (although in some cases, additional goods may be located elsewhere). There are three major categories of moves: (1) interstate moves that cross state lines, (2) intrastate moves from one metropolitan area to another that do not cross state lines, and (3) local moves within a particular metropolitan area that do not cross state lines. However, subsumed within any of these three categories (or optionally standing on their own as separate categories) may be additional types of moves, such as national account moves, container moves, and international moves. A national account move typically involves a move whereby an employee of a business is transferred from one location to another, and the business is paying for the employee's move. Such a business may have an account with a national moving company to facilitate these transactions. A container move is a type of move transaction where the moving company provides the customer with a storage container to be filled with the customer's goods that are to be moved. In some circumstances, the customer may choose to take on the responsibility of filling the container with goods, and the moving company's job is to pick up the container on a scheduled date and transport that container to the destination. It should be understood that national account moves and container moves may also be categorized as interstate, intrastate, or local moves depending upon the origins and destinations for such moves. An international move is a type of move where the moving company provides traditional interstate, intrastate or local service, which may also involve national account or container moves, followed by shipment of at least a portion of the customer's goods to a foreign country.
A moving industry quote, or move quote, is an offer from a moving company pertaining to a move transaction whereby the goods of a customer are to be moved from an origin to a destination. The move quote typically will include a price estimate for the move transaction based on the moving service to be provided (e.g., the dates for the pickup and delivery of the move, an estimate as to the amount of goods to be moved, whether movers are to pack any of the goods, an identification of the origin and destination, etc.) Upon acceptance of a move quote by the customer, a move contract is formed. Once a move contract has been formed, a moving company can perform the defined move for the customer on the scheduled date.
The move quote is generally based on a survey of the goods to be moved in combination with the applicable rates. Rates are typically set by administrators and are used to determine a cost for a specific move, based on, for example, cubic feet and weight of goods to be moved.
As indicated above, multiple entities are typically involved in managing move quotes. For example, different people may perform tasks with respect to managing move quotes such as assigning sales leads to appropriate personnel, conducting surveys at customer sites, creating appropriate move quotes, and performing follow-up actions in connection with any of the same. Many of these entities may be engaged by different companies, even in some instances in connection with a single move quote. Additionally, a single move quote may involve multiple types of moves to accommodate the customer's needs, such as an intrastate container move and an international move. Different entities may also manage the various rates for these different types of move services comprising a single move quote as necessary.
In order to better and more efficiently serve the needs of participants in the moving industry quote management process, the inventors disclose the methods and apparatuses of the present invention.
In accordance with one exemplary aspect of a disclosed embodiment, the inventors disclose a processor configured to execute workflow management software to manage a plurality of moving industry quote workflows. Each moving industry quote workflow may correspond to a move transaction or a portion thereof, and the moving industry quote workflows may also correspond to a plurality of workflow types. Each workflow type may comprise an associated plurality of interrelated tasks for different aspects of managing a moving industry quote workflow, wherein at least one of the workflow types comprises interrelated tasks that are to be performed by a plurality of entities that are geographically remote relative to each other. The processor can be configured to create data for a plurality of different graphical user interfaces (GUIs), each of the GUIs for interaction with at least one of the entities to manage the interrelated tasks applicable to that at least one entity, and wherein the workflow management software is further configured to populate each the GUIs with data applicable to the interrelated tasks for that at least one entity.
The different entities may be associated with different roles in the workflows. Examples of roles include an estimator role, a home office (HO) administrator role, and an agency administrator (AA) role (which can also be referred to as a “booker” role, “AOR” role, or “agency lead coordinator” (ALC) role). A person serving in the HO administrator role may work for a national moving company or some other administrator entity in connection with the system. A person serving in the AA role may work for an agent moving company. A person serving in the estimator role may work for an agent moving company. Moreover, it should be noted that some agency administrators (or even estimators) may be origin agents (OAs). An OA is an entity engaged by a first moving company who is performing a task at the request of either the national moving company or an agent moving company. Thus, depending upon a move scenario, another entity in the workflow may be a person in an OA role.
The workflow management software can associate the different entities with corresponding roles to determine the tasks that are to be performed by each entity in connection with the move transactions with which they are involved. As previously noted, the different entities who access the workflow management software in connection with a given move transaction may be engaged by different companies. However, it should also be understood that for some move transactions, the different entities who perform tasks therefor may be engaged by the same company. An exemplary embodiment disclosed herein is preferably configured to support both move scenarios.
A memory for communication with the processor can store a plurality of data structures for administering the workflows. Examples of data structures that can be stored in the memory include authorized user data structures, workflow data structures, transaction data structures, and rate data structures.
These and other features and advantages of the exemplary embodiments disclosed herein will be understood by those having ordinary skill in the art upon review of the description and figures hereinafter.